"Lawmakers, Bush Discuss Airline Security"

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Lawmakers, Bush Discuss Airline Security


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush met with congressional leaders on
Tuesday to discuss improving airline security after the Sept. 11
attacks, U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Richard Gephardt
said. 

Gephardt, a Democrat from Missouri, said Transportation Secretary Norman
Mineta was due to give lawmakers a series of recommendations this week,
including retrofitting airliners with steel doors separating the cabin
from the cockpit. 

But he expressed skepticism about a proposal by the largest pilots union
to arm pilots as a last line of defense after hijackers seized four
airliners and used three of them to attack the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon. 

``I don't think that's probably the best thing,'' Gephardt told CNN
after a breakfast meeting at the White House. 

Another proposal under consideration was posting military police or
reservist on every plane to help give passengers a greater sense of
security, Gephardt said. 

``We need to get people flying as quickly as possible,'' he added. 

He said a proposal to add steel doors to plane to keep cockpit crews
from facing would-be attackers could possibly allow Washington's Ronald
Reagan National Airport to reopen. 

The airport, located just across the Potomac River from key Washington
sites like the White House and the Capitol, has remained closed since
the attack due to security concerns. 

``If we could get those on the planes going in and out of Reagan
National here in Washington, we think that airport could be opened more
quickly,'' Gephardt told CNN. 

He said he pressed Bush for assurances that any additional aid to the
airline industry would also include measures to assist displaced airline
employees, especially those not covered by unemployment benefits. 

``He said he was more than willing to look at it,'' said Gephardt. 

If the slump in airline travel persisted for a long time, Gephardt
suggested, federal training funds could be used to retrain airline
employees for work in other industries.

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